It's the Small Things: REMEMBER THE NIGHT
Remember the Night (1940) puts beautiful detail into blocking and framing this scene where Lee and Jack connect over ‘home’ — orchestrating long, lingering camera moves to match the swells of emotion.
Instead of choosing ‘coverage’ — filming actors doing much or all of the scene from multiple angles, then cutting different takes together — the direction uses long takes with thoughtfully choreographed actor and camera movement to keep us ‘in the moment.’
You can watch the whole scene and read about its context here — below I’ve clipped just the featured shots.
Opening Shot
As Lee and Jack dance, the nightclub singer (professional songstress Martha Mears) approaches the microphone from camera left, motion and timing creating a smooth, natural introduction.
At first Mears is in the shadows far in the background, but her movement brings her sparkling dress into the light as the camera continues to move in the same direction as her. The focus racks to her, then the camera settles into on a medium shot featuring Mears as the dancers (and Lee’s hat!) clear frame.
One could, of course, accomplish the same “people dance, woman sings” with a cut from the dance floor to a medium shot of Mears, but with quite different effect; it would visually and emotionally ‘break up’ the dance and conversation. Director Mitchell Leisen clearly wants the song to be direct continuation of Lee and Jack’s talk; the lyrics echo Lee’s internal thoughts, but the direction makes sure it carries through all facets.
Compositionally, this move is completely in sync with the music playing softly underneath the dancers, then growing in volume as the lyrical / vocal performance is featured.
Closing Shot
A single, 45-second shot ends the scene, but it’s anything but simple.
After Lee breaks away from Jack, the camera holds a moment on him watching her before a sweeping crane move backwards, revealing the bannister which physically separates them, visually representing the emotional distance Lee is attempting to put between them.
As Jack walks across the back of the shot, Lee sits into the front as focus pulls to her. We watch Lee attempt to process her emotions; Leisen letting Stanwyck work without any cuts to potentially take us out of the moment, no super-close-up needed to underscore ‘this is heartbreak!’
As Jack crosses frame, the camera moves slightly left to give him ‘room’ to sit down, facing the same direction as Lee. This is a practical consideration, since the scene isn’t going to cut to singles, and has the distinct advantage of letting us watch both their faces, but it’s also the visuals giving us emotional cues.
Lee left dancing with Jack partly so she didn’t have to look him in the eyes, and Jack shows understanding by sitting next to her, where she can either avoid or meet his eyes if she chooses (and she does, a few times). The camera showing them in the same frame at all times keeps Jack’s courtesy and Lee’s choices obvious.
As Jack makes his offer of a free ride and Lee accepts, the blocking also visually demonstrates they’re both ‘together’ in this, facing the same direction emotionally just as they’re about to be literally / geographically.
Takeaways
Long and/or sweeping camera moves can have many uses — inspiring awe, inducing vertigo, showing off beauty — but sometimes they can also be small and simple. Even with minimal equipment nowawdays you can create moves which visually underscore a scene’s emotions at the same time it lets us dwell on them.
A fun exercise when shotlisting is to consider sections of the script which concentrate on certain emotions or character moments, and consider if your camera movement can work in sync with them, or at least not contradict them.